A baby squirrel came to play with us this afternoon -

I was out on the deck talking to my dad when it came and stood between us. It kept standing right by our feet and then running to the tree where it would get curious and come back again. We finally went inside and got our cameras and when we got back outside thought it was gone. A minute later, there it was again. It stuck around for about half an hour letting us take pictures and play with it before it finally ran up the tree -

:loveya:

so cute! I would like to see a really, really small one, though.

they have teeth like scalpels - big deep wound with blood all over the place before you ever feel it (don't ask how I know this)

Extremely cute clownish critters with very sharp teeth

I had a squirrel that would come when I 'called' it (I made a chittering sound). He'd come over and climb my pants leg and reach in my pocket for a treat. One day my mom saw this and she freaked out and wouldn't let me do it again.

as far as it has.


On edit ... but then again ... she may have been worried about your nuts and her future grandchildren.

But it's all good, she isn't getting grandkids anyway.

or a similar response from some other DU smartass.

mother the first time I fed her six years ago. She eats from my hand (dad's too) and comes when I call. If I'm not out there when she's hungry, she climbs up the back door and looks for me -

:7

I love it. And the look on her face. Uh...hello? Hungry here.

you'd never know it to look at him. Hopefully, I'll inherit that trait, too.

I hope that is in the genes.

Their eyes weren't even open yet so I had to feed them with the eyedropper. A mistake a lot of people make with these kind of small baby mammals is that their mothers will stimulate them to have a bowel movement, otherwise they will get bound up and die. So many will be raising them and say, "they were eating really well and then they just died". That's the reason.

When they got big enough I kept them in a pen outside. Eventually I just left the door open and off they went. One did stay in a big tree down the street and when he saw me he would come running to the little tree in my front yard and jump down onto my shoulder.

They were the only squirrels in my neighborhood at the edge of the city near the bluffs and the river bottoms and they were all males. In the end they heard the call of the wild and I never saw them again.

by Sterling North.

The boy raised a raccoon.

I read it in third or fourth grade.

It broke my little grammar school heart when Rascal "answered the call of the wild."

Pardon me for asking, but just how did you stimulate them to have a bowel movement?

Had to do the same thing with a kitten I bottle raised.

They slobbered some when bottle fed. Not inclined to lick them, with some reluctance we decided to clean them with a warm washcloth. I buried them afterward in cotton, etc, to keep them warm. One of them died soon afterward and I have always supposed it was due to the quasi-bath. But now I'm starting to think it was because we didn't stimulate them as you have described.

The survivor made a fine pet while it was young. It liked to be with us. If we moved from one chair to another it would scurry across the floor and climb up to our shoulder or the top of our head. It also liked to perch on the curtain rods. Then if we walked by it would glide down and land on us.

My very favorite memory was when Mrs. Lasher's aunt came by to visit. She was terrified of mice and anything remotely like them. We forgot about little Rocky being up there on the curtain rod. When the aunt walked by, he landed on her. She literally fainted.

We released little Rocky into the woods after he got older and hardly ever wanted or even tolerated interaction with us.

This was in 1975 and I read what to do from a copy of Defenders of Wildlife magazine I had that told how to care for orphan animals.

I'd hold her bottom over a tiny stream of lukewarm water and stimulate her with a q-tip. It worked. She lived to be just a few months short of 20 years.

a wild animal. I'd LOVE to raise little squirrels or raccoons or something! I'm sure those little squirrels grew up thinking of you as their parent and they never forgot. My cat is thirteen now and still thinks I'm his mother, but he's not sure what he is since he grew up with me for a mother, my two boys, a huge neutered male cat and a dog who both licked his face after meals. He's still not sure what species he's supposed to be, lol.

I was the only one she saw for awhile after her eyes opened and until she got her legs. The first other animal she saw was my beagle who was very keen on cats when he viewed them through the window, but had never encountered one up close and personal. Then here comes this very little kitten who thought that maybe that other furry creature was mom toddled over toward him, well he ran and hid under a chair.

I don't think that cat did ever really know she was a cat. She lived to almost 20 years old when I had to have her put to sleep. I had to stop twice on the way to the vet to cry and I was with her when they were going to put her to sleep and I was ready for it. What I wasn't ready for was that it took them 3 times to find a vein because they had collapsed. Man that was hard and I still tear up to remember it.

to have to do when nothing goes wrong. I'm sorry. That cat was lucky you found her and that you took care of her for twenty years. Sounds as if she took care of you, too. Being friends with an animal is one of the most wondrous and wonderful things!

They were chasing each other back and forth in front of the house and up and down trees. I watched them for a few minutes, but they scattered when they realized I was there. There are several big pecan trees in the neighborhood, so we have a large squirrel population.

I like the squiddels. I feed the ones around my yard because I think they are cute. They do repay me with dug up flower pots but I enjoy them none the less.

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...started leaving peanuts on the sill and soon started to leave the window
open slightly and put the peanuts on the inside sill.
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Eventually coaxed him/her further and further in with a trail of peanuts.
Ended up sitting on the arm of the couch right next to my shoulder when
I was reading. Never tried to pet it and it kept an eye on me, but didn't
seem hyper-nervous about our proximity.
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Pretty fun. Pretty cool.
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I don't remember for sure... but I must NOT have had Blackcat and Greycat
at that point.
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